


Snowed in, Snowed Out

by theskywasblue



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: M/M, Romance, Weather
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-08
Updated: 2010-07-08
Packaged: 2017-10-10 11:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/99023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A ring around the sun means bad weather, and Hakkai gets caught in the storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snowed in, Snowed Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akuchan_47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akuchan_47/gifts).



It looks nice enough outside, Gojyo thinks, leaning over the kitchen sink to get a better look at the vast, glittering whiteness that is now their back yard; but there is something in the endlessly blue sky that betrays the frigid temperature better than the way Gojyo's breath frosts against the window pane. There must be a draft coming in somewhere along the bottom of the window too, because on the inside of the pane in one corner is a little collection of intricately patterned ice crystals.

It has stopped snowing, at least for the moment. Gojyo gets the sense that won't last very long. The sun is a distant spot in the vast blue of the sky, so bright that it's almost white, but there's a distinct ring around it, a fierce glow.

Gojyo isn't one to normally subscribe to any kind of superstition, but years ago when he was still young enough to believe anything his big brother said as gospel truth, Jien told him that a ring around the sun in winter means bad weather coming, and while his brother was -- and still is -- a bit of an ass, Gojyo has seen it prove true too many times to think it's a total load of crap.

"You look terribly deep in thought for so early in the morning Gojyo." Hakkai bumps his side playfully with one elbow, edging him over so he can fill the pot for coffee.

Gojyo shrugs, "I just don't like the look of things outside, that's all."

"Too bland for your tastes?"

"Nah, man. I just think we're getting another storm is all. Worse."

Hakkai makes a thoughtful noise, almost lost under the sound of the coffee starting to brew, "Perhaps I should hurry down to the market this morning then, rather than waiting until the end of the week."

Gojyo's gut reaction is to say no. He doesn't want Hakkai hoofing it through the already knee-deep snow drifts down into town, then all the way back, not knowing when the bad weather he's increasingly certain is coming will hit them; but at the same time, if the storm does turn out to be _really_ bad, they can't very well go without food. Gojyo remembers a bad storm one winter that left him and Banri stuck in the house like rats in a trap, subsisting on a bottle of cheap plum wine and rice crackers for three days. They had fought like trapped rats too, and Gojyo's cheek throbs suddenly with the memory of a particularly good right hook.

He decides finally that Hakkai is tough enough to brave the cold, and smart enough to stay in town if the weather looks like it's going to turn on him.

"Might be a plan. I can get us set up around here."

Hakkai looks out the window once more, like he doesn't quite believe the storm will happen, but he doesn't argue with Gojyo's intuition, and it's all agreed without either of them saying anything to that effect.

After breakfast and two cups of coffee, Hakkai bundles himself up, layer upon layer, and sets off into town moving just a little like a penguin through the snow drifts, and Gojyo has to smile watching him, but will never say how hilariously adorable he looks. Then Gojyo puts on his heaviest knit sweater, his jacket, a pair of gloves and what he likes to refer to as his "godawful hat" -- enormous, lined with fur and finished with those ridiculous little ear flaps -- laces up his boots and goes out to find the wood pile.

Having the wood stove put in the corner of the living room was a not-so-reluctant concession after two winters with sudden furnace and/or power failures and Hakkai’s hardly subtle repetitions of _“to think I survived a journey all the way to India and back filled with thousands of blood-thirsty assassins, only to freeze to death in my own home.”_ Of course now that they have it, Gojyo can’t remember how they lived without it. The only pain in the ass is chopping all the damn wood to put in it.

Their wood pile is buried this morning under a good two feet of fresh snow. Gojyo stomps and curses his way through the drifts -- breath puffing out in long silver clouds -- and digs the pile out until there’s enough there for him to split a decent amount into stove-sized pieces. He’s sweating obscenely under his heavy winter gear by the time he finishes, it’s just after noon and the ring around the sun is fiercer than ever against the starkly blue sky, almost as white as the snow on the ground.

Gojyo puts the chopped wood in the little caddy thing Hakkai bought that sits next to the stove, hoping it will have a chance to dry out some; then he strips out of his uncomfortable, sticky woollen clothes and heads straight for the shower.

When he gets out -- having used a great deal of the hot water, but finally, wonderfully warm right down to his bones, in a T-shirt, pyjama pants and hand-knit socks -- the sky has darkened about ten shades, enough that he has to turn on a lamp instead of just relying on the light coming through the windows, and the snow has started to fall. It’s slow at first; flakes so big that Gojyo can see their individual patterns when they come to rest against the window; then steadier, heavier, until Gojyo can’t see anything beyond the window at all.

He hopes that Hakkai is safe in town, not somewhere on the road back home, then goes to the stove and starts building up a fire.

He sits for a while, paging through a magazine, and tries not to watch the snow swirl outside the windows. It won’t do any good to worry about Hakkai, even less to try and go out looking for him. Gojyo would get lost all to hell and back himself, and then -- knowing his luck -- Hakkai would come home and have to go out again looking for _him_. Some rescue attempt that would be.

Still, by about three o’clock Gojyo is so edgy he can’t sit still, and feeling guilty on top of it for ever agreeing that Hakkai go into town. So finally he dresses back up -- coat, scarf, gloves, hat -- and is just lacing up his boots when he hears a sound on the other side of the door, a soft _whump_ that sounds a lot like when the caught-up drifts of snow fall off the edges of the roof. He opens the door, a great blast of snow hitting him straight in the face and washing in around his boots, and finds himself face to face with Hakkai -- who is grinning and red-cheeked and has so much snow caught in his dark hair that he looks like he’s gone grey.

“Hello Gojyo,” Hakkai’s smile doesn’t falter one bit, though Gojyo knows his mouth is hanging open like he’s trying to catch all the snow in the world on his tongue. “This is quite the storm we’re having, isn’t it?”

“Shit,” Gojyo says after a moment’s pause, stepping quickly to the side, “get your ass in here. It’s fucking freezing out there.”

Hakkai brings a lot of the storm in with him, spilling over the doormat. Gojyo levers the door shut with a grunt, kicks off his boots -- which are covered with snow even though he didn’t even step outside -- and picks up the shopping bags, just to make himself useful.

“I’m afraid the vegetables might be frozen,” Hakkai says, shaking the snow out of his hair and off his coat.

“Forget the vegetables,” Gojyo says, “what about you?”

“I’m afraid I might be frozen too,” Hakkai laughs.

“Then get yourself in front of that damn fire already.”

Hakkai, for once in his life, doesn’t argue; which Gojyo thinks proves how cold he must be. Gojyo puts on the kettle for a pot of tea and puts away the groceries, which _are_ more or less frozen themselves; and neither of them say so much as two words out loud even though _I’m so glad you’re okay_ and _I’m sorry I worried you_ hang in the air. It isn’t until Gojyo sets the tray of tea down on the coffee table and sits down next to Hakkai that Hakkai says, “It seems you were right about the storm.”

“Too fucking right I was,” Gojyo answers, sliding right up against Hakkai so their hips touch and sliding an arm around him. There’s still a chill clinging to his skin, but it’s improving; his face however, is probably wind-burnt and will be pink for hours. “I’m always right.”

Hakkai laughs, in place of pointing out all the times that Gojyo was, in fact, quite wrong; which is okay by Gojyo, because this isn’t the time to start arguing over stupid shit. Hakkai drinks tea and Gojyo smokes a cigarette while thinking that if they end up snowed in things would be perfectly alright.

-End-


End file.
